


Know Yourself

by peachytickles



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Tickling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:40:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25335529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachytickles/pseuds/peachytickles
Summary: Chidi and Tahani can speak French. Eleanor cannot.
Relationships: Chidi Anagonye/Eleanor Shellstrop, Tahani Al-Jamil/Chidi Anagonye, Tahani Al-Jamil/Chidi Anagonye/Eleanor Shellstrop, Tahani Al-Jamil/Eleanor Shellstrop
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	Know Yourself

**Author's Note:**

> Tahani and Chidi can speak French. Eleanor cannot.  
> (NOTE: Though they are - mostly - written in English, sentences that are bolded and italicised are intended to be ‘read’ as French!)
> 
> \- find me on tumblr @peachytickles -

“Today,” Chidi said, scrawling something on the blackboard with a flourish, “we will be starting the module on Sartre.” He moved over to the table where there was a small stack of books, and still talking, started to dig through them.

Eleanor barely heard him. She was too busy staring at the blackboard. His handwriting looked…weird. Well. Weirder than usual, anyway. It was always messy and slanted, and there had been a few times when she’d had to get him to read aloud what he’d written because it bordered on indecipherable. But today? Today it looked like it had been written in a different language.

She told him as much, and next to her Tahani giggled.

“Eleanor, darling, he _just_ said that. You weren’t daydreaming again, were you?”

“No!” Eleanor snapped. Then she paused, and a slow, guilty smile spread across her face. “Yes.”

“Well, Chidi was just explaining that today’s class, an introduction to Sarte, will be taught in French.”

“What the fork? Chidi, that makes no sense!” Eleanor wailed.

Chidi inclined his head slightly, the way he always did when he disagreed with something. “ _Wellll_ , not really. As I was saying, today _we_ ,” he gestured between himself and Tahani, “will be starting Sarte. _You’ll_ be reading this.” He held out a book to her.

Eleanor snatched it from him and scowled down at the cover. “Plato?!”

“Yes, _Plato_. The same Plato that you were supposed to read for homework, and _didn’t_.”

Eleanor huffed. “I didn’t think you’d notice,” she muttered.

Chidi gave her a look of utter disbelief. “Can I remind you that we live in the same house?”

Tahani had been watching this whole exchange in amusement, and, seeing the combative look on Eleanor’s face, managed to pick exactly the right moment to interrupt.

**_“Chidi, par quel livres de Sarte allons-nous commencer?”_ **

The sound of Tahani speaking French was thankfully enough to shock Eleanor into silence. She closed her mouth, sinking back against the cushions with a sulky expression. It was also enough to nudge Chidi back into teacher-mode.

“What? Oh, yes Sarte, Sarte….” He collected some more books from the table and handed them to Tahani. **_“Je pense que nous allons commencer par celui-ci. Oh, et Eleanor?”_**

At the sound of her name, Eleanor perked up visibly. “Yeah?”

“Open your book!”

\---

After the rocky beginning, the lesson ran a little more smoothly.

In fact, it ran a lot more smoothly. They raced through the introduction at a pace Chidi had only been able to dream of before, and soon moved onto a more in-depth approach. He quickly figured out that the concept of existentialism deeply resonated with Tahani, and they were both surprised to learn that she seemed to pick up philosophical principles more easily in French than English. They also found that speaking in French meant they got far fewer interruptions from Eleanor. Of course, they still had to put up with her piping up every so often to ask what they were actually saying, and then they had to pretend to ignore her irritable squirming and rolling about as she tried to find a comfortable position to read in.

And so, as much as he enjoyed the bizarre observations Eleanor made when she actually _engaged_ with the material, deep down Chidi had to admit that it was a welcome break to be able to teach a lesson without being interrupted by crude jokes and quarter-hourly snack breaks.

(To be fair, the snack breaks were still taking place. But Chidi and Tahani were so absorbed in their fancy French discussions that they hardly noticed Eleanor and her growing collection of Oreos.)

That was, until Janet arrived with a ping, and a bucket of popcorn shrimp.

Chidi tried to get to her first so he could confiscate the shrimp, but Eleanor had scrambled over the back of the couch and plunged a hand into the bucket in what seemed like a microsecond.

“Okay, no. We are not introducing seafood into my classes!” He scolded, rushing over. Tahani was trying to eek Eleanor’s arm free of the shrimp, but it was proving difficult - she had stiffened up and was refusing to bend her elbow.

“I’m not letting go!” Eleanor shouted. She was violently squirming where Tahani was gripping her by the upper arms. “Janet, quick, give ‘em here-“

“Janet, do NOT!” He snapped. “Go, and take the shrimp with you!”

It worked. Janet disappeared with another of her melodic pings, and the bucket went with her. But this time, it was accompanied by another sound.

A squeal.

Chidi whirled round, and quickly realised what had happened.

Fuelled by determination, and incandescent by Eleanor’s stubbornness, Tahani had given up on tugging at her arms and had instead reached down to squeeze at her sides. Eleanor’s knees had buckled and she was slumped forwards, one hand reaching back to clutch at Tahani’s wrist. Were he a more ignorant man, Chidi might have assumed that noise was a shout of pain. But instead, that single glance told him all he needed to know - just from seeing Eleanor’s loose-limbed posture, the way her hair was hanging around her face, and the embarrassed grin she was trying to hide behind it.

He met Tahani’s eyes, and a kind of mutual understanding passed between them.

**_“Est-elle…?”_ **

**_“Oui.”_** Tahani nodded, her eyes glittering. **_“Elle est.”_**

“Tahahaniii, you know I hate when you do that!” Eleanor whined, pulling away and half-heartedly rubbing at her side. Chidi couldn’t help but notice there was still a small smile playing over her lips.

Those words seemed to light a spark in Tahani. She moved closer to Eleanor, hands on her hips. **_“No you don’t. That was a lie, wasn’t it?”_**

The look of bewilderment that passed over Eleanor’s face was intoxicating, and without even thinking about it, Chidi found himself joining in.

 ** _“It was,”_** he agreed. **_“What would Kant have to say about that?”_**

Upon recognising the word Kant, Eleanor’s face lit up in understanding. Then it morphed into a frown. “You’re talking about philosophy,” she said.

 ** _“That’s right,”_** Chidi said.

Eleanor’s frown turned into a moody pout, and she leaned over the couch to pick up the book he had assigned her. “Well, I can’t understand what you’re saying, so I’m not participating.”

**_“Oh, well, that’s not very studious of you.”_ **

**_“Yeah, and participation in my seminars isn’t optional!”_ **

Eleanor opened the book to a dog-eared page and held it up in front of her face. “Sorry, studying, can’t hear you.”

Chidi and Tahani exchanged a look, before Chidi stepped forwards and snatched the book away.

“Dude, what the hell?! I was reading that!” She followed after him, hands grabbing, but Chidi held it out of her reach. Then he frowned, squinting at the page.

“Eleanor, what chapter were you reading?”

“Uhh...seven?”

“I assigned chapter _eleven.”_ He paged back a little, then stopped. “Hold on, did you only manage to read four pages?”

“Ehm…no. No, I think it was…four and a half?”

Chidi shook his head. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

Eleanor started to back away, but she soon bumped against Tahani, and flinched when she felt the taller woman’s hands come to settle on her waist. “Nonono wait, I can explain!”

Chidi raised his eyebrows questioningly.

“Ah, well, uhm- _ahaha!”_ Eleanor squeaked when she felt one of Tahani’s hands give her side a warning pinch. “It was the French! It sounds so strange, and I didn’t know what you were saying, and I couldn’t block it out!”

“Oh. _Oh._ Well, that’s understandable.” Chidi adjusted his glasses. “Therefore, your punishment should be carried out accordingly-“

“Oooh, _punishment_.” Eleanor giggled, waggling her eyebrows. “Like Socrates and knowing yourself-“

Chidi sighed. “Tahani.”

She didn’t need telling twice. Tahani squeezed Eleanor’s sides with gusto, delighting in the way the smaller woman squawked and arched away from her hands.

“ ** _No, Eleanor, this is your punishment. We’re gonna teach you French while we tickle you so that you can’t use it as an excuse to disengage from lessons anymore.”_** Chidi said as he walked closer.

“Whaahaat? I don’t know what you’re sahahaying!” Eleanor giggled, trying her best to wriggle out of Tahani’s hands. Behind her, she heard Tahani laugh, and okay, _why_ did it sound so scary?

 ** _“Really, Eleanor? You can’t figure it out? You were so close, too! It does have something to do with knowing yourself!”_** Tahani tutted, her hands moving sporadically all over Eleanor’s torso.

“Nohoho!” Eleanor squealed, jerking forward and actually managing to pull herself out of Tahani’s grip - though she stumbled, and ended up tumbling into Chidi’s waiting arms.

 ** _“Well, I think it’s got less to do with knowing yourself and more to do with us knowing you_** ,” Chidi mused, his fingers starting to scope out the ridges of Eleanor’s ribcage.

Eleanor made one of her famous gurgling sounds and started to sink to the floor, her legs giving way. Chidi eased off for a moment and lowered her down safely, taking care to ensure she didn’t bang her head, or slip, or sustain some other accidental injury.

Eleanor used the break to take a few grateful breaths of air, but she had barely recovered before Tahani was kneeling over her and spidering gentle nails over her neck.

 ** _“You didn’t think you were getting away from me that easily, did you?!”_** Tahani teased. **_“Give in to the tickles!”_**

Eleanor blushed then, and turned her face away, giggling uncontrollably as Tahani used a single fingernail to draw swirls under her chin. She reached up and grabbed at her wrists, only to burst into a loud, helpless peal of laughter as Chidi’s hands wormed their way under her arms.

 ** _“Aah, Chidi look, she’s blushing!”_** Tahani crowed, revelling at the sight. **_“What’s wrong, Eleanor? Are the tickles making you flustered?”_**

At those words, Eleanor whined, her face growing pinker. Over her, Chidi and Tahani’s eyes met.

“Tahani, I- “

“She understood what I said,” Tahani realised.

They stared down at the woman between them, who didn’t seem to be able to stop giggling.

“Noho I didn’t.” Eleanor lied.

“Are you sure?” Chidi asked, planting one hand by her head and hovering the other just over her stomach. He grinned, easily able to spot the way Eleanor shivered with anticipation.

“…Yehehes?”

“We’re not even touching you,” Tahani interrupted suddenly. “And yet you’re still laughing. Why is that?”

“Is it because you know what we’re going to do?” Chidi asked.

“I - uhm…” Eleanor stuttered wordlessly.

“It is, isn’t it?” Tahani said. She flipped her hair over one shoulder and leaned closer, planting her hand on the other side of Eleanor’s head. She had to hide a smile when she noticed the blonde shrinking in on herself a little. “Well, here’s how it’s going to be. You’re going to tell us what we’re about to do, _or we won’t do it.”_

“Nooo, oh my God!” Eleanor wailed, covering her face with her hands. “I cahahan’t!”

“Oh, you can.” Tahani murmured, running a finger along Eleanor’s waist, where her sweater had started to ride up. It was a deliberately gentle touch, barely enough to even tickle, but Eleanor slammed her arms down all the same.

“ _Forking hell, fine!_ Youweregoingtotickleme!” She snapped, the words coming out in a big jumble. “There, done. You happy now?”

“Mmn, not quite.” Chidi sighed. “We wanted you to say it in French.”

“What - no - but - I can’t?”

“It’s just one word, Eleanor. Say it, and you get what you want.”

“I really don’t know what it is!”

“Oh, Eleanor _, come on.”_ Tahani sighed, fussing at the hair that had fallen into the blonde’s eyes. We can tell you’re lying. You blushed each time I said it, just as you do when I say it in English.”

“But I honestly think that’s got more to do with tone…?” Eleanor tried. Then she squealed, curling up on her side as Chidi, apparently all out of patience, vibrated his hand into her stomach. “Ohohohmygohohod!”

“You,” he hissed, “are utterly impenitent.”

“I simply have to agree” Tahani sighed, sliding a hand under her sweater and swirling her nails along her side, as Eleanor dissolved into a fit of laughter and rolled onto her back.

“Pleahehehase!” She giggled, both hands grabbing onto Chidi’s wrist for leverage.

“Please what?” He asked.

“Ihihihi don’t knohohow!” She shrieked, and he laughed, taking that as his cue to back down. Eleanor hardly seemed to notice, still giggling as she turned over to Tahani and stretched a beseeching hand towards her.

“Time to stop?” Tahani suggested, unable to resist spidering her fingers over Eleanor’s outstretched palm even as she nodded and giggled.

“Does that mean you’re ready to finish your homework now?” Chidi asked, getting to his feet and then helping each of his girls up.

“Ugh!” Eleanor groaned, climbing over the back of the couch and flopping face-down. “Isn’t there a movie of the book?” She complained, voice muffled by the cushions.

Chidi stared at her, and then sighed. “I mean….probably. This is The Good Place, after all.”

Tahani laughed and patted his arm. “Get the blankets, darling. I’ll ask Janet.”

Eleanor lifted her head. “Don’t forget the shrimp!”


End file.
